Tuesday, 2 February 2010

INTERVIEW: The Kelly Twins [UFO]

Traversing genres, styles and tempos isn't really the newest thing for a DJ to do, but to completely enamour the listener, constantly keeping them guessing, even aching for the next blend at the same time as making them forget the origins of the mix is definitely an achievement. This is something Bristol duo The Kelly Twins have done impeccably well with their instalment in our ever growing mix series.

Fierce recommendation led us to book them for our 1st birthday party (conveniently placed on your calendar this Saturday night) so we persuaded them to answer a few of our queries and break convention in committing a mix to tape.

Sonic Router: Can you provide those who may not know you with a bit of background info?

Kelly Twins: We are Bristol based identical twins who play records together, we have the pleasure of getting to play the music we love in various different clubs for a variety of different nights. We have held down residencies for nights such as Byte and Best Before (RIP). We currently run our UFO parties on a monthly basis and have recently got involved with a night called Crazylegs, which we help to run alongside a crack team of like minded promoters.

Outside of music who are you? What do you do on the daily?

We are both students currently in our final year and work menial part time day jobs, when we can find time between work and uni we like to search youtube for obscure boogie records and 80s horror soundtracks.

How did you first get into DJing, what was it that infected you?

Our dad used to be involved with rave promotion back in the 90s so dance music was something that was always in the background growing up. We got our first set of decks when we were 14 and had our first residency when we were 16. Not long after, we went to Ibiza with some school mates, while we were there we went to Space to see Laurent Garnier do a 3hr set. He played everything from techno to jazz, by the end he was even dropping Squarepusher and Dillinja tunes. To play those sort of records at what was predominantly house club, was a brave move and we really respected that. That night completely changed our view of DJing and what a DJ can do, it inspired us to take more risks when we play and a more eclectic approach is something that we have adhered to ever since.

How would you describe what you play to someone checking you for the first time?

One half of us wants to play really camp electro funk, freestyle, acid house and italo disco records, while the other half wants to play grimey gutter beats such as hip hop, ghettotech and dubstep. So most of the time we play a combination of the both. If we genuinely like something then we will play it, irrespective of musical genre.

What/who is currently floating you boat musically?

We have been getting into a lot of really slow 4/4 type stuff at the moment, producers like Om Unit, Funkineven and Illum Sphere. Also Been listening to quite a lot of commercial RnB instrumentals, quite often the vocals in these tunes detract from how good the beats are. Producers such as The Dream and Pharrell are proper next level. As always we like to delve back in time and seek out forgotten gems, Kerrier District has had a massive revival at the Kelly Twins HQ as have Anthony Shake Shakir, Ron Hardy and anything on Dance Mania

You guys run the UFO nights in Bristol. Tell us a bit about the history of it, what goes down at one of your parties?

UFO was first started by our good friend Mitch down in Plymouth about 12 years ago, it was one of the very few nights in Plymouth brave enough to go against the usual hard house/ happy hardcore flavour and try to do something a little different. It ran sporadically for many years and become somewhat of an institution, a night where regardless of who the guest was you were guaranteed to hear good forward thinking music. After being involved with UFO for a while, we decided to give it a go in Bristol when we moved here about 5 years ago, and thats what we did. At first we popped up with the occasional one off party, putting on peeps like Rustie, Hudson Mohawke and Joker amongst others. But now we run UFO monthly at the Dojo Lounge and we will have been running it there for a year in Feb. So far we have had guests like Tim Wright, Actress, Andy Blake, Hot City, Funkineven and we have some exciting stuff in the pipeline. We are often asked what sort of night UFO is? Our answer to that is we are about good music, whether it be old school or next level, being played by a big guest or a local dj. As long as its good, thats all that matters to us.

What events have you got coming up?

We have the UFO 1st birthday on the 26th of Feb with AGT Rave Cru then we have Om Unit, T.V.O plus others lined up for the next couple of months as well as a few collabs with other nights. We have a Crazylegs party coming up on the 12th Feb with Ikonika, Pangaea, Mosca and Martin Kemp, which we are very excited about. it's going to be ridiculous!

Tell us a bit about the mix you put together for us…

Its quite difficult to condense what we do into a short space of time so we tend not to do mixes that often, with this mix in particular we were determined to take it across the board musically and switch up the tempo a bit. We didnt like the idea of it being too rehearsed or after edited, so we recorded it in one take on 2 turntables and 1 cdj and thats it. We wanted it to be a true representation of what we do and we feel as though we have achieved that. Tracks wise, the Dream – Rockin that shit had to be in there. Its such a positive tune and the perfect way to start a mix, its a statement of intent. Also the SBTRKT mix of Fantastic Mr Fox was a no brainer, any track that sounds like its raining multicoloured 8bit on you definitely gets the thumbs up from us. We have exclusives from Kaiser, who is doing big things this year and a name you will be hearing a lot more of . Plus LuckyMe cohort Dema sent us a remix especially for the mix.

You’re playing at our 1st birthday party on Saturday, what can ravers expect from your set?

The unexpected with a side order of lazer bass.

And lastly, have you got any wisdom for the internet users?

If a Nigerian prince emails you asking if he can store 100,000 in your account, then it is a scam.

Also we would like to dedicate this mix to the memory of our mum and dad, they were our biggest supporters and inspiration. Everything we do is in honour of them.